Final Fantasy Hacktics

Gentlemen!  The day has finally come!  With over a year in production, Final Fantasy Tactics: Rebirth (formerly known as Project: Bahamut) is now available for public download.  FFT: Rebirth is a modification for the PSX game Final Fantasy Tactics.  The mod features one new class, the Lunar Knight, rebalanced classes, altered characters, enhanced encounters, and a slew of item and monster changes.  You can find a full list of features at the Nexus Studios Features Page - http://www.nexus-studios.org/?page_id=89.

*With the help of LastingDawn from FF Hacktics we have created a PPF version of the mod that saves bandwidth!  All you need besides this file is an emulator for yourself and an image file of Final Fantasy Tactics.  The download link for the mod is located at the Nexus Studios FFT: Rebirth Mainpage - http://www.nexus-studios.org/?page_id=60

Here is an instructional video on how to setup the modification:

Finally I would like to say personally say thanks to everyone who has helped with the development and production of this mod.  Here's a short video of me expressing my thanks.

@Raven
Yeah I figured someone else would be doing something similar, I just hadn't seen someone present it in that manner.

@Zaen
Yeah, there are some good points to the "Tactics Ogre" system.  We just thought it discourages changing classes, as changing classes after being one class for a lot levels doesn't make any sense (you wouldn't be good at those abilities of the new class).  And in our mod we wanted to encourage people to use classes they hadn't before.  However everyone here would probably be interested in why you choose to do it that way, and how it enhances your mod overall.

Gentlemen,

I know a while back there was a large discussion on Speed Growth and ways to alter or solve issues associated with it (particularly late-game balance, de-leveling, and the like).  A while back I made a Powerpoint on it for my own mod - in order to tell users unfamiliar to the Battle Mechanics Guide, or Tactics modding in general, what was Speed Growth, how we dealt with it, and how others were dealing with it.  Well today I finally got around to adding audio and uploading it as a video.  I've been trying to tie up all the lose ends and get my mod out on December 19th, 2010.  Anyway, I thought you guys might like to see and/or discuss these videos; considering these are the esoteric things that such communities love.

Without further ado:


Also embedded on the webpage at: http://www.nexus-studios.org/?page_id=319

Hmm, I guess I have to vote for Phil as he's pretty much the man, since Zodiac is still doing all the technical upkeep.

So I'm taking a class at a community college as I wait to go Army Chemical School next year.  And lo and behold President Obama rolls in.  Crazy that I meet him at a community college rather than the four year university I went through or through a military event.


I'm the one on the left.  Video in link below.

http://www.wxii12.com/r-video/26035994/detail.html

I'm the guy with glasses and the military haircut he starts talking to right after 3 minutes in.

Man, I still couldn't get it to run at 3x speed with OpenGL2.  I'm just going to stick with the the Software Plugin on SuperEagle.

And that lets you play at 3x speed?!?  How can you when your FPS limit is 60?!?

Can you post your settings?  Emu, Plugins, and their settings, like Phil did?

Quote from: "Jon"I am guessing maybe you have done all this and it still plays slowly? I don't know then, make sure the audio isn't synced with the video, I dunno, try random stuff.

It doesn't run slowly with the OpenGL plugins per say; it runs at normal speed when characters are moving or receiving commands.  It doesn't stay at a fast speed the entire time.  The audio is fast until I give a command, then the game and audio run at normal speed.  How can I desync them and just have the game run at 3x speed (180 FPS)?

Quote from: "johnmyster"Pretty fun patch, I like the slight alterations, such as support abilities for each class automatically, and shorter spell charge times. So far I like the added MA to most mage classes (though I've only used Priest myself). The sprite color changes are easy on the eyes and add a bit of pleasant variety since I have played through FFT several times just in the past year.

The armor may a bit overpowered, you may or may not want to making its strength 175% or so of the normal values instead of 200% (or atleast I think that's about what you changed it to), though I admit the extra HP is real nice. It just depends on how the added HP balances out with all of the other options a character has. Perhaps the strengthened magic will somewhat counteract this once more mages show up in story battles, especially since all of my characters have 63+ faith. I haven't used Yin Yang magic yet, but the increased AOE for most spells in the set should be fun to see.

The first few battles were challenging, though now that my party is built up a bit to level 4-5 I found Zeklaus Desert pretty easy. I'm hoping the challenge will pick up towards the end of Chapter 1. I'm not expecting 1.3 difficulty, and I don't like to be forced to do random battles just to win story battles, but I appreciate a strong difficulty curve. I will probably keep playing this patch for a while, and I will update my thoughts on the patch after I play through it some more, there are still many, many things I haven't seen or tested out this early in the game. All in all, a fun patch so far, I hope you continue to work on it!  

Haha, this reply is late as hell but glad you noticed some of the changes.  Been away on assignments for the US Government for a little but I'm now back in town for a few months before being shipped out next spring.  I'll give some updates in the next few days.  Our goal was to create something that made FFT more epic for the familiar player (think something akin to the upgrade from PSOne to PSP versions) than a complete overhaul to a hardcore style like 1.3 - which is cool but a bit too difficult/painful for us that play FFT once or twice a year post 2000.

Ok, this is a little Thread Necromancy but . . . I have a similar issue:

Has anyone been able to get the OpenGL plugins to do this effectively?  I set the FPS Limiter and FPS to 180 but the game still runs at normal speed anytime there is movement or commands are inputted.  Is there anyway to get it to run at the speed of the Soft Rendered Drivers?  I'm interested in this because the difference in high the environments look is incredible, and I would like to have that in addition to playing quickly.

Quote from: "formerdeathcorps"So what did you actually change from vanilla in this beta?  Everything you mentioned above, or just some subset of it?  It's hard for me to play a hack on faith value without at least knowing some of the changes.  Plus, it helps us all catch bugs and design flaws.

All of that mentioned above including a new speed growth system, a ton of random encounters, rebalancing of characters, and revamped storyline battles.  I'll get a changelog up soon, but I had to put an upload up for some testers and figured I'd put the link up here also in case anyone was interested.

Ohhhhh, I have more information finally.  Actually a release:

http://www.nexus-studios.org/?page_id=60

Its only a beta and is just the entire modified ROM; only things left are rebalancing after feedback and doing the Deep Dungeon encounters.  I'll make a patch file and everything after a short beta period.

I used to be a Firefox fan.  Then I ran Google Chrome.  Which is better in every conceivable way.  Seriously it makes Firefox look like shit on a stick.

That is awesome.  I really enjoyed it so far.

Two more videos, messing around with getting both sound and mic recording at the same time.  Of course I get owned while fighting this one out but whatever.

Poaching allows access to much better equipment and all the upper tier guns can be acquired with it.  The MA Growth on chemists is boosted because the earliest levels the most in regards to stat growth, and Chemists are on the Magic path.

If spells are listed as "Improved Spells" then they have had an increase in not only speed but also %hit and/or damage healed/cured.  Which means magic users stay strong mid-game but don't fall off as hard late game.

As requested.  Besides these lists items have also been rebalanced (ex. Heavy armor gives +50% more HP than before) and storyline battles have also been made harder.  Currently working on Deep Dungeon and random encounters.

Assembly and Hex Edit Hacks

• Crossbow formula becomes WP*WP
• Instrument, Dictionary, and Cloth formulas become MA*WP
• Float weak against Wind; Oil weak agaisnt Fire
• Special characters can do propositions
• Mighty Sword ignores equipment presence and hits monsters
• Poison damage from 1/8*MaxHP to 1/4*CurrentHP
• Equip Crossbow allows both crossbows and bows
• Weapon Guard Innate to all
• Increase Jump Damage by 3/2 regardless of weapon
• Axes and Flail damage becomes (Rdm {0...PA-1}+PA)*WP
• Dash and Throw Stone Knockback 100%

Monsters
All monsters have had their HP Multiplier increased by approximately 20%.  Tier 3 monsters have had their HP Multiplier increased by roughly 50%.

• Chocobos: Increased Movement, Increased MA Multiplier, All Have Choco Esuna Base
  
• Goblins:[/b] Increased Class Evade, Revamped Abilites (Steal)
  
• Bombs:[/b] Attack UP Innate
  
• Panthers:[/b] Increased Class Evade, Tier 3 Improved Abilites, Improved Beastmaster Abilites
  
• Mindflayers:[/b] Improved Move, Teleport Innate, Counter Magic Innate, Revamped Skills
  
• Skeletons:[/b] Arrow Guard Innate, Improved Abilites
  
• Ghouls:[/b] Improved Move, Damage Split
  
• Flotiballs:[/b] Immune Petrify, Wind Weakness, Half Earth, Increased Class Evade, Improved Abilities
  
• Hawks:[/b] Improved Movement, Improved and Altered Skillset
  
• Trees:[/b] Altered Skillset, Improved Abilities, Always Regen, Tier 3 has Defend Up Innate
  
• Minotaurs:[/b] Improved Abilities, Meatbone Slash Innate, Defend Up Innate
  
• Morbol:[/b] Altered Skillset, Move-HP Up Innate
  
• Behemoths:[/b] Altered Skillset, Improved Abilities, Defend Up Innate, Magic Defend Up Innate
  
• Dragons:[/b] Improved Abilities, Defend Up Innate, Magic Attack Up Innate
  
• Tiamats:[/b] Improved Abilities, Attack Up Innate, Hamedo instead of Counter

Classes
All classes saw a roughly 20% increase in HP.  Other class specific changes are also listed here.

• Archer - Innate Concentrate, better Jump, Improved Charges
• Bard - Increased PA Multiplier and MA Multiplier, Improved Songs
• Chemist - Increased MA Growth, Lower JP Cost Skills
• Dancer - Improved Movement, Jump, and Class Evade, Improved Dances
• Lancer - Innate Ignore Height, Increased PA Multiplier
• Mediator - Utilize Books, Innate Immunities (Invite, Confusion, Berserk, and Charm), Increased MA Multiplier, Improved Talk Skill
• Monk - Utilize Hats, Chakra and Revive +1 Vertical Range
• Oracle - Innate Defense Up, Increased MA Growth, Massively Improved Ying Yang Magic
• Priest - Innate Magic Defend Up, Increased MA Growth, Improved Spells
• Squire - Innate Monster Skill, Lost Defend
• Summoner - Innate Half MP, Faster Spells, Increased MA Growth, MA Multiplier, and MP Multiplier
• Thief - Utilize Crossbows, Innate Poach, Increased Speed Multiplier, Improved Steal
• Time Mage - Innate Short Charge, Increased MA Growth, Improved Spells
• Wizard - Innate Arcane Strength, Increased MA Growth, Lower MA Multiplier, Improved Spells
• Calculator - Changed to Lunar Knight
• Knight - Innate Defend, Improved Battle Skill
• Geomancer - Utilize Flails, Innate Attack UP, Improved Geomancy
• Samurai - Innate Two Hands, Increased PA Multiplier, Improved Skills

It took me a bit to put my finger on it, but aren't his shoulders way too narrow?

Alright there are a lot of ways to increase the difficultly of battles besides just raising the levels of enemies.  Let's break down every way you can increase difficulty.

1.  Increasing Enemy Levels
The first and most popular way is to make enemies "Party Level" or "Party Level +X".  This improves not only the stats of enemies, such as their HP, PA, and SPD but it also allows them to utilize better equipment.  Of all the ways to improve difficulty this is probably the quickest to implement, as it just requires quick editing in the ENTD tab in FFTPatcher.

However lets also analyze the weaknesses of such a system.  First of all your player or end-user never gets to set the difficulty of fights anymore.  Leveling up has little consequence (all you want to do is job enough to unlock jobs) and some skills are made obsolete (Gained EXP UP, Steal EXP etc).  Players can no longer get to a hard fight and then if they having difficulty - level up to get past it.  You've made the game punishing for no apparent reason - if a player wanted hard fights in the normal game they could decide themselves not to level, why are you restricting the freedom of your players by not letting them set the difficulty?

Random battles are obviously fine with the "Party Level" mechanic as a player can always avoid them, storyline battles with this however can become not much fun very quickly.


2.  Manually Setting Equipment and Abilities
Our boy Phil suggested something different - to manually set the equipment and abilities of enemies to make them better.  This has huge upside because you can make battles challenging while keeping a static level.  However it does have one specific downside - every time you do that battle it will be the same.  In effect this is a one trick pony if you use it on every enemy in a Storyline battle, because if they ever replay that battle the enemy will use the exact same strategy.


3.  Open Up More Skills to Enemies
Another way to increase difficulty is the crank up the JP it takes to be level 8 to something like 5000 (from 2100).  Then you also set the primarily or unlocked class of enemies to level 8 in the ENTD.  You also crank the % Learned Rate of almost all abilities.  This will give most enemies access to many more skills.  You can of course do this for battles you think it is appropriate (for instance, battles past Chapter One) or you could blanket the entire game with this method.  The downside to this method is that it makes achieving Level 8 of Jobs more difficult and makes Mime much harder to unlock.


4.  Combo Method
Since each strategy to increase difficulty involves strengths and weaknesses which one should you go with?  I believe the answer is you use a combination of the available methods to dilute each separate methods weaknesses.  For instance I make a "boss" for every battle, typically whoever speaks in the cutscene right before the battle.  For that character I manually set his equipment and abilities.  Additionally I'll make sure he has level 8 of his primary class unlocked.  

That way their will be one beast guy who has the same setup every battle but the people around him may or may not have the same set up.  Outside of Chapter One I make every enemy have level 8 of either their primary or secondary job unlocked, therefore allowing them to use many more skills (Summoners may use the big guns like Bahamut for instance).

Also I may set one or two pieces of equipment on enemies but not their entire set up.  For instance I may put Magic Gauntlets on Wizards but leave everything else random - this means the Wizard may have different skills and setup everytime, but he will always be fairly decent at casting black magic.

Anyway that's a pretty decent analysis of what you can do to increase difficulty besides just pumping levels.